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Since you're not enjoying this, I would recommend talking to the GM and respectfully informing them that you don't enjoy this level of resource micromanagement in your Fantasy Adventures.
Clearly either someone's having fun with it, or the GM feels somehow obligated to go to this excessive level of detail, and either way, it can only help things to let the GM know that this isn't fun.
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Depends...normally no not at all and this sort of thing is best done out of session.
However, if the town is the base for an adventure and developing a relationship with the various persona is important to the plot then maybe - but four hours is definitely overdoing it.
One routine I use at the beginning of a campaign I run is to have the adventurers barred from entering the Inn where they rented rooms after returning from their first adventure. The reason, they are filthy and of course never spent any starting funds on a spare pair of clothes. So they are sent to the village tailor who sells them some clothes but also reveals he is not part of the village militia because he is too small. However he is an expert with the crossbow and has a masterwork heavy crossbow that he is eager to show off. The party then have a reason to interact with the village militia captain and so build some contacts and actually care about what happens to the villagers if/when they are attacked.
My players in my campaign have wanted to do this. There were no objections so I obliged, but made sure to keep it interesting through roleplaying merchants.
Later, I started working with side sessions, apart from the main session, for one or two players at a time, which made roleplaying purchases more doable without slowing the game.
I've seen it happen a few times. When there's no real roleplaying detail like the aforementioned being turned away from the inn or interesting NPC interactions, and it's just a matter of having to actually roleplay in detail specifying to some generic NPC shopkeepers that you want a pound of cheese, a keg of beer, a replacement wagon wheel, and a masterwork dagger, then it often drives me crazy. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind resource tracking. I'd be perfectly okay with specifying buying all that offscreen, and in fact often enough I'm the one who takes note of bizarrely pedantic details. I just don't want to spend hours of my day acting out mundane errands involuntarily.
I say involuntarily because there are times that IC shopping wouldn't annoy me. Mainly, if it was brief, or had plot significance, or if I had the right character to make it a RP opportunity. For example, my aasimar paladin would probably be fun to RP shopping with, possibly to the rest of the party's consternation, because she would inevitably end up buying souvenirs and sweets and a kitten and a few ribbons, and most likely whatever was actually needed but don't count on it. Or my cleric of Abadar who would just talk everyone's ear off about the state of the local economy.
(No, this isn't intentionally a passive-aggressive way to avoid future shopping sessions, but I admit it might work for that anyway.)
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No. The merchant is a businessman. He has no reason to be difficult with a customer barring some corner case. It should also not be difficult to find food in a town.
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Is this because of the party role playing with the townsfolk? If so then it is a good thing (well good if you enjoy role playing). If it is because the GM is being difficult about finding basic supplies then you may indeed need to have a chat with him about easing up on you guys.
I fondly remember spending 3 12 hour sessions just role playing our efforts to enjoy a circus while equipping for our next mission. Everyone but the poor GM was having a blast.
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If you roleplay out going to different shops, haggling with merchants, and then picking out specific goods that the GM randomly determines if are in or are not in stock. Absolutely. It can definitely take that long.
That is among the reasons why all 'shopping' is handled away from the table via email in my games. Because it can take up a huge amount of time. And while I like roleplaying out situations like that, the trade off just isn't worth it. I would rather roleplay plot relevant moments then encounters with shop owners for insignificant purchases. But this is just my feelings on the matter.
As others have stated, talk to your GM and the rest of the players and figure out something that works for everyone. Its ok to handwave the purchasing of mundane gear to save time at the table. At the very least have players show up to the table with a pre gm approved list of things they are going to buy and their cost and roleplay it immediately without people needing to look up prices and such.
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Roleplay is not necessarily a good thing.
Roleplay is a form of narrative.
Not all narrative is good or interesting. If you go to the movies to watch Blade Runner, you'd be disappointed if 9/10 of the time was dedicated to shopping.
It's important that players and GM agree on what kind of narrative they want to develop.
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Another voice for the "it's not typical, but it's justifiable in some circumstances" chorus.
There are, in fact, cultures where buying a pound of cheese is expected to take a very long time, largely because haggling is a social pastime. (And in a pre Xbox world, what else were you going to do?) There are also parts of the world where you can spend all day looking for just the right thing (why, yes, I have spent hours driving all over a major city looking for one specific type of cheese. No, dammit, I don't want feta, I want halloumi!)
On the other hand, the GM is supposed to make sure that the players are having fun; if you're not having fun, tell the GM and maybe he will handwave this away the same way that Tolkien handwaved away two weeks walking between leaving Rivendell and camping in Hollin. (Or the two months between the Council of Elrond and the Fellowship actually leaving.)
Roleplay is not necessarily a good thing.
Roleplay is a form of narrative.
Not all narrative is good or interesting. If you go to the movies to watch Blade Runner, you'd be disappointed if 9/10 of the time was dedicated to shopping.
It's important that players and GM agree on what kind of narrative they want to develop.
True but unless the GM is just being difficult then all this roleplaying at the market is something the players are doing for their own enjoyment. And any fun narrative is a good narrative in my book. Heck if they made a movie about a shopping trip that was full of fun and interesting dialog and drama/comedy/ect. then I would probably buy a ticket or maybe even the movie itself if it was fun to rewatch.
True but unless the GM is just being difficult then all this roleplaying at the market is something the players are doing for their own enjoyment.Roleplay is not necessarily a good thing.
Roleplay is a form of narrative.
Not all narrative is good or interesting. If you go to the movies to watch Blade Runner, you'd be disappointed if 9/10 of the time was dedicated to shopping.
It's important that players and GM agree on what kind of narrative they want to develop.
Well, I've seen lots of bad GMs out there. But my suspicion is that it's a single player doing this (he bought us 60 pounds of different kinds of cheese that's it") and that the GM is simply playing along and greasing the squeaky wheel. Even if it's all-the-players-except-the-poster, it's still uncool to subject someone to four sessions of unenjoyable play.
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True but unless the GM is just being difficult then all this roleplaying at the market is something the players are doing for their own enjoyment.Roleplay is not necessarily a good thing.
Roleplay is a form of narrative.
Not all narrative is good or interesting. If you go to the movies to watch Blade Runner, you'd be disappointed if 9/10 of the time was dedicated to shopping.
It's important that players and GM agree on what kind of narrative they want to develop.
Well, I've seen lots of bad GMs out there. But my suspicion is that it's a single player doing this (he bought us 60 pounds of different kinds of cheese that's it") and that the GM is simply playing along and greasing the squeaky wheel. Even if it's all-the-players-except-the-poster, it's still uncool to subject someone to four sessions of unenjoyable play.
If it's the GM coddling "that guy" then yes someone should say something to get the game moving again. BUT I disagree if it's all the players except the poster who are having fun. Then it becomes more an issue of differing play styles. If the whole group but one guy loves doing X (RPing w/ villagers, murdering villagers, building orphanages, exploring the deep wilderness, ect.) then THAT is what the group should be doing. If you sit at a table of hard core murder hobos (term used lovingly) and want to do nothing but talk in deep narrative style to everyone for days and days endlessly... then you are the problem just as much as if you tried to run around murder hobo style in a group that spent all their time in deep character conversations. And if you are the oddball in a play style difference than either learn to have fun their way or find a new group that plays your way. Don't continue and cause problems.
The one thing that can happen is if your GM lacks quick access to THE INTERNET from your play location it can be difficult for them to find the price of items you wish to purchase. I've had my players stuck in town on a simple shopping trip for an hour as they make me scramble through my books for the prices of a variety of items located in a variety of books.
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Chiming in: if everyone at the table is having fun, then it's okay. If not, then not.
If everyone but the OP is enjoying it - and we don't know either way - then surely cutting these interactions to get to what the OP enjoys would also be a bad-GM-greasing-the-squeeky-wheel situation in your eyes?Well, I've seen lots of bad GMs out there. But my suspicion is that it's a single player doing this (he bought us 60 pounds of different kinds of cheese that's it") and that the GM is simply playing along and greasing the squeaky wheel. Even if it's all-the-players-except-the-poster, it's still uncool to subject someone to four sessions of unenjoyable play.
No, it would be a "GM treating all members of the group fairly" situation. Especially since I can't imagine that the rest of the group are only willing to play Home Shopping Network: Pathfinder edition.
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This happens to you every tenth session?
Seems deadly dull to me. We even try to minimize selling/buying magic items in session. I'm the group treasurer/quartermaster (take care of monsters' gear etc.) when a player, and I just do the math myself and tell the GM how much 1/2 of their value is when we get back to a decent sized town.
We end up doing shopping during game sessions on occasion. There are a few reasons for this, and typically its mostly NOT because I require it (I am the GM). Generally speaking, it is difficult to get my group to coordinate via email during the week, so some metagaming is required at the beginning of each session, particularly while we are still in a town. Also, since we are playing through an AP, I am semi-enforcing the economy rules. The economy rules require some dice-rolling for availability, and it also means the party has to do something outside the confines of the AP itself when they haven't visited a city in a while.
That being said, we almost never RP this, it just sometimes turns into a rather lengthy affair figuring out what everyone has/needs, and how to handle the trading. There are occasions when I have them ask around to find things, or deal with a particular vendor that they have befriended (or angered) in some way, but these are quick affairs just meant to get them to work for any discount they may have earned (or work off a surcharge they've been penalized with).
Sixty POUNDS of cheese?
Seriously? A single adult male with an active lifestyle could survive (calorically speaking) for over a month just on this cheese by itself, without losing any weight. What possible need could there be for that much freaking cheese?
And they spent two other sessions buying other staples?
Is someone actually tracking the usage of these food items during play?
I'm honestly trying to wrap my head around the flavor of OCD that would be required to go into this much detail about one specific type of food in a fantasy RPG game session.
I'm not trying to be mean, here. I honestly don't understand how anyone could find that entertaining, much less necessary.
Absurdist humor has been fairly prevalent in most games I've been in and run. The type of humor that finds things funny BECAUSE they're absurd, unrealistic, and take more time than they really should to track.
So really, you don't need any more reason than "this is stupid" to do something stupid >_>
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Shopping should be done via email, not during valuable table time.
But I hate shopping in real life, let alone in my heroic fantasy hobby time.
I also hate it when the prices are different than those listed in the rulebooks. I don't care about market forces. Inflation isn't fun.
Roleplaying shopping is sooooooooooooooooo boring!
I also hate keeping track of every single copper piece and dealing with awkward treasure portions. If there are 7 PCs, the party should find 700 gps, or 1400 sps, or 350 pps, not 387 gps & 1203 sps.
K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Sorcerer!!!
so lets change the direction of this conversation. what is a list of things i could do to speed up the process.
as in
1.) set a meet up location and time
2.) have a list of the things that we need
3.)....?
Shopping by email, and having everyone decide what they want in advance if the GM only allows in game shopping.
Also letting the GM and group know that you have suggestions to speed it up, because if they actually enjoy this, they will find a way to prolong it, not matter what you come up with.
My policy is ALL that silliness had best be done before I get to sit down as GM. Yes, I count arrows, water and kippers, but I do not waste anyone's valuable gaming time haggling over shoeing a horse. I have noticed that every time a GM insists on this nonsense, he (always a he, btw) is trying to screw with a particular player.
A player who insists on this after I've rushed over after a long day sweating is the jerk I want to sit next to and fart profusely. And, yes, I have done it on more than one occasion, even asking people to swap places with me. I broke one of these louts after he whined about my stench (I usually stand back and 'long distance' my role until a break where my toon is not involved, then dive in the shower). The group vetted several months of fermented frustration on him and he became a much meeker soul for almost a month. They were still ripping him when I got back from a awesome shower.
Seriously, a friend insists on all character bookkeeping being done by a week before he runs (once/month) and you must have your next level plotted out as well. Every set of spells, civilian, home, guard and 'cleared for action' loads done. It sets a very serious tone and we get a load done in a 3-4 hour (at best) session. Considering the the 'kid' at that table is in her late 40s, no one has a real problem with the table rules.
Resorting to chemical warfare is a bit extreme, but Bwang is exactly right. Adults should get all their bookkeeping done (leveling, shopping, spell selection, mini selection, pencils sharpened, software loaded, electronics charged, etc.) before showing up to the game.
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But, if you're willing to pay that absurd cost, or are bad at haggling and don't bring the cost down much, the merchant isn't going to keep dragging things out. He/She is going to take his money and talk about how stupid you were with the other merchants that night.No. The merchant is a businessman. He has no reason to be difficult with a customer barring some corner case. It should also not be difficult to find food in a town.In loads of countries, haggling is expected, especially with travelers. The merchant will start with an absurd cost and expect you to argue with him.
This.
And even paying triple for food is dirt cheap for someone who buys magical gear.
Another vote for only if everyone is having a good time. I know I've played in and ran games both in the past where we've spent hours making purchases, arranging for an item to be just so, working out kinks with hirelings and otherwise dealing with things that aren't strictly "action". We were having a good time and it was what people wanted to do that day, so we rolled with it.
If everyone but the OP is enjoying it - and we don't know either way - then surely cutting these interactions to get to what the OP enjoys would also be a bad-GM-greasing-the-squeaky-wheel situation in your eyes?Well, I've seen lots of bad GMs out there. But my suspicion is that it's a single player doing this (he bought us 60 pounds of different kinds of cheese that's it") and that the GM is simply playing along and greasing the squeaky wheel. Even if it's all-the-players-except-the-poster, it's still uncool to subject someone to four sessions of unenjoyable play.
No, it would be a "GM treating all members of the group fairly" situation. Especially since I can't imagine that the rest of the group are only willing to play Home Shopping Network: Pathfinder edition.
Let me just be sure I'm getting this straight:
1 player enjoys something, 3 players don't, activity follows that majority do not enjoy - Bad GM for caving to the squeaky wheel.
3 players enjoy something, 1 doesn't, time spent doing something majority enjoy - GM needs to treat the party fairly by doing what the 1 wants.
You don't see the problem with the positions there?
Yes, the problem is with your (mis)representation of the positions. But do continue arguing with something that's happening only inside your head, because it's considered poor form to visit asylums watch the amusing lunatics unless they're posting on internet forums.